Homemade Nocino Walnut Liqueur

Instructions for making nocino, a spicy, sweet Italian walnut liqueur, made from green, undeveloped walnuts.

Photography Credit:
Elise Bauer

Nocino is an Italian liqueur made with unripe walnuts that are still soft in their green husks. It’s spicy, sweet, and slightly bitter, and delicious served drizzled over vanilla ice cream, or served on its own as an aperitif.

Sourcing green walnuts

To make nocino, the first thing you will need to do is source some green walnuts! I’ve never seen green walnuts at any market. It may be easier to find a friend with a walnut tree.

The best time to make nocino is in late May or early June, when the shells have still not yet hardened inside the husks. If you wait too long, the walnuts are too hard to easily cut through and you need to quarter them to make nocino.

Protect your hands and cutting board from walnut stains

Once you have your green walnuts, you’ll want to take care with them as you work with them for this (or any) recipe. Walnuts STAIN like a sharpie permanent marker.

So, wear gloves when you cut into the walnuts and handle the cut pieces. Work on a cutting board that you don’t care if it stains. Wear an old t-shirt or clothes or an apron you don’t care about if it gets stained.

Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

31 Comments / Reviews

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Mark

Question. I made a batch last year that I have tasted a few times throughout the year as it is aging. The liquid is actually as very dark color but with a very noticeable green hue to it. The flavor so far is very medicinal. I have tried noccino in the states and in Italy. I have even had the pleasure of trying homemade noccino in Italy with friends who live there and none of them have had this medicinal flavor. I only used the walnuts, cloves, lemon peel, and cinnamon in my recipe. Do I just need to wait longer?

Also, this year I found a house down the street with an english walnut tree so I’m going to make another round and see what the difference is.

Hi Mark, so you didn’t include the sugar? Nocino requires sugar, otherwise, yes, it will taste rather medicinal indeed! If you did include sugar, but just neglected to include it in the list in your comment, then I would just wait a few more months for the nocino to mellow out.

I want to like it, but the batch we made seems highly toxic. We’d ordered green walnuts from Red Rosa Farms, which turned out to be green Black, not green English like I should have ordered. They’re located in Indiana and I don’t recommend them as they’re snarky and unfortunately list nocino as something to make with these. At bottling, we four adults took a tiny sip and all felt immediately nauseous. Maybe they will turn less toxic after sitting for a year, but I don’t have a way of knowing beforehand if its safe to drink

I’d try it again with green English, and I’d nix the single anise star I’d put in. It had a too-strong licorice taste to it. So, I’ll give it three stars for my really wanting to like it and wanting to try it again. Minus two for being at this point inedible.

I made a batch with black walnuts, but actually harvested the nuts a little late (mid-July) I had to use a hammer and chisel to split them open. : p. I waited two years before trying the nocino, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out! It’s a walnut-producing year for my tree, so I’m planning to make another batch.

Well in Italy and the southern part of Switzerland we have a lot of proud nocino production.

Most of the older folks tell us that the day to gather the walnuts is the 21st of June, then you let it at the sun for 21 days, filter out the walnut pieces and then add the spices to let it again 21 days at the sun. My grandma couldn’t explain me why beside of “that’s the right way to do it”

Help! I moved into a new house about a year ago with a walnut tree in the front yard. My old boss had made nocino in the past and I loved it, so I thought I would give it a try. However, I started it almost 2 months ago in mason jars, but the liquid is still really light. Definitely hasn’t turned as dark as any progress pictures I have seen. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Andrea, I don’t know. What’s weird is that walnuts stain everything. When you cut them they would have stained your fingers (after a few minutes or so the stain would make itself known.) So I don’t know why they’re not working right. Was it a new bottle of alcohol? Could it have been diluted?

Hi Elise,
They stained my cutting board, and my sister-in-law’s fingers (she volunteered to do all the cutting), and I had just bought bought the bottle of vodka for this project. I cracked the seal on the bottle myself… I’m at a loss, and I can’t find answers anywhere else online!

Jeanette

Hello! Do you store it in the sunlight or darkness? I’ve heard different ways and am curious!

I made vin de noix (nocino) this year. I am 74, so I could only use the walnuts I
could reach by pulling down the limbs, so I made about a pint. It is really good,
and I read the longer it sits (bottled) the better. After saying all that……..I was
wondering if anyone has made this with green pecans, and if so, how did it
turn out?

I noticed that your ingredients said to NOT use American black walnuts. Why? Also, A couple of folks commented that they were going to try and use American black walnuts; was there ever any feedback on how that turned out?

Hi Eugene, I’ve had a reader complain that he got terribly sick from nocino made from black walnuts and said there was a problem with black walnut toxicity. I do have friends that are particularly sensitive to walnut leaves and bark and black walnut trees are known for having a toxin in their roots that can keep other plants from growing. So, the reason to not use black walnuts is to protect someone who might be unknowingly hyper-sensitive to it.

Years back, while I was still living in the Italian part of Switzerland I received whole bunch of green walnuts accompanied with a recipe for nocino. It was given to me by a Swiss-French Chef.
At that time I did not have grappa, only Sake, it has worked out well too , but grappa would be a prefered choice.

Hi Elise. The batch that I made is indeed getting darker with each passing day. It has a rather interesting deep green hue to it – the same green color that you get when you mix the dyes together when dying easter eggs. Is this the normal color, or should I be worried? Thanks for your input.

Hi Marjorie – sounds perfect! That’s just the color it is, almost black with a greenish hue, which I think may turn brownish over time. ~Elise

Great post Elise! I made two batches of this last weekend; one with black walnuts, the other with english. I used orange zest instead of lemon for the black walnut batch and added a bit of allspice for good measure. The english batch I followed your recipe to the tee. Will let you know how they turn out in a couple of months. Any other recipes for home made liqueur would be greatly appreciated if you have them; I am a big fan of making my own concoctions, such as Mulberry liqueur, which is less fuss then Mulberry wine. Keep up the great site!

Great! I love that people are doing this it…We made 5 gallons last year and it was amazing. I was told you have to harvest on June 23 and use an uneven number of nuts!
I make mine a bit differently. We steep the nuts sugar and spices (i add coffee beans) in the sun for 3 months and then strain add simple syrup and steep one monthe more.
It was very complex and great with chocolate.
I am just about to write a story for The Seceret Eating Socitey fall issue magazine…check it out.

I am going to give this recipe a shot. For those of you without a walnut supply: I searched on the web for Green Walnuts and came up with Haag Farms at http://www.walnuts.us/ was $34 for 6 pounds (about 60 walnuts, or two batches worth) including shipping. Was really fast and easy to use. (not affiliated, just a happy customer)

The walnuts arrived today (3 day shipping) and although I am not a walnut expert, they seem to be what I want. Getting ready to start chopping them up now.